AN illegal immigrant has been jailed after he was caught running a cannabis farm in Middlesbrough with drugs worth nearly £50,000.

Ninh Nguyen, 41, a Vietnamese, had arrived in the UK in May last year on the back of a lorry from France, and he was granted bail after being arrested by immigration officers who gave him an appointment which he failed to keep.

He found work in a restaurant in Birmingham but when he turned up he was taken by taxi to Middlesbrough, Teesside Crown Court was told.

He was instructed how to feed and water the 123 cannabis plants that were already being grown in the loft of the house in Wellesley Road, Middlesbrough.

Nguyen was the sole occupant when the police raided the address on November 13, said prosecutor Victoria Lamballe. The plants, which were worth £49,200, were surrounded by buckets of water and bags of soil, and the attic had been lined with silver plastic sheeting. There were also sodium lights and fans to assist the growing.

Miss Lamballe added: “He was in possession of a list effectively detailing how to grow cannabis. He admitted clearly to being a gardener.”

Garry Wood, defending, said that Nguyen, who had a wife and family in Vietnam, never intended to find himself in cannabis production.

He added: “He intended to obtain work in a restaurant, although he accepts he was an illegal immigrant.

“However, individuals transported him to Middlesbrough, instructed him to live there, and provided him with £200 for essential household bills.

“There are others involved. When he arrived the plants had already been set up, and he was visited approximately every 10 days by an individual who he was given very little details of. This individual would contact him by telephone from a withheld number. He was very much isolated and to some extent exploited.”

Mr Wood said that Nguyen was anxious to return to his family in Vietnam, and he had already been served with deportation papers which would be activated at the end of his sentence.

The judge, Recorder Jonathon Sandiford, told Nguyen yesterday: “This was a sophisticated set-up.” Nguyen was jailed for 18 months after he pleaded guilty to producing cannabis.